Rags To Riches
Illawarra Mercury
Saturday February 9, 2002
IF you've only flipped through a style magazine in the past 10 years you'll know that second-hand stuff is hip. Wearing clothes discarded by others is no longer an admission of dire poverty, but an expression of ``freedom and individuality". Filling your home with old and mismatched furniture and bric-a-brac is ``eclectic and bohemian".
But the rise of retro chic has changed the face of the second-hand industry. Op shopping, once the preserve of the needy and in-the-know treasure-hunters, has become a mainstream sport.
In recent years, Australia's big charities have responded to the popularity and revolutionised the way their stores are run. Gone are the jumble stores with mountains of clothes on trestle-tables and appearing everywhere are orderly ``retail environments". But gone too, some say, are the bargains. Has retro chic pushed up prices in charity stores to the detriment of people in need?
Smith Family national retail coordinator Sandra Cartwright uses phrases like ``market research showed", ``trying to do it smarter" and ``a greater customer base", and says the organisation has definitely adopted more business-like retail practices.
Following customer surveys, the charity introduced wider aisles for prams and wheelchairs, better window displays, clearer ticketing and less cluttered racks. Clothes are steamed to removed the second-hand smell, then grouped into women's, men's and children's, often in colour and size sections ``for more convenient shopping".
``We've moved away from that rummage feel to where it's still good value but it's easier to shop," Ms Cartwright says.
St Vincent de Paul shops are also being run with a more business-like attitude, according to regional centre president Pat Murphy. ``All our shops now have to meet a standard. They have to be painted a certain colour, the carpet has to be a certain colour, they have to look new, and they can't smell."
Another change in charity stores is the appearance of new clothing from well-known brands. Although reticent to discuss deals with major manufacturers, several charities reported that the clothing is usually discontinued stock or excess ordered from suppliers to reduce overall costs. The goods are either a corporate gift or offered at cost. The understanding is that there is little cross-over between upmarket department store customers and second-hand customers.
St Vincent's big, bright new Corrimal centre, which also has a welfare section, reopened last June and volunteer manager Ron McCudden says takings are up by at least a third.
Op shops are doing better due to an attitude change over the past decade or so, Mr McCudden says. Including his own.
``Years ago when I was in a little op shop on the North Coast, a man asked if I was interested in second-hand clothing, and I said, `No, not really. I can afford to buy new stuff and I'm more comfortable with it.
``He said, `That's fine, but do you ever have a beer? What about the glass you put in your mouth? How many mouths has it been in? And if you go for a meal, think about the fork you put in your mouth or the plate you eat off. And if you stay in a motel, who slept in the bed before you?'
``He blew me away. It was a good way of looking at it. I suppose everything's second-hand except you and I."
Ms Cartwright is also convinced second-hand clothes shopping is losing its stigma. Late last year, a Port Macquarie newspaper gave 10 teenagers $100 each to buy clothing from local op shops, and the story sparked a terrific response, she says. ``We saw an increase of teenage boys and girls coming into our store. They realised we sold surfboards and designer sports brands. And not all parents can afford these things brand new."
Keith Greenaway, operations manager for the Salvation Army's Family Stores in the Eastern Territory (NSW and QLD) says the term ``opportunity" is out and ``recycled" is preferred, and that the organisation has conducted market research into the changing customer profile.
``The amount of people who are happy to shop in our stores is much higher. Something like 50 per cent of Australians, once they've shopped in a recycled (goods) shop once, will return...It's getting them in the door the first time to find that it's no longer the poorly presented jumble shop (they remember)."
``There's no reason why a person who needs to shop with us shouldn't have a nice shopping experience too. But certainly the spin-off is that the client base increases enormously."
Charity op shops are just part of a much larger business, says Mark Lyons, Professor of Social Economy at the University of Technology, Sydney.
He estimates non-profit social service organisations in Australia have a gross annual turn-over about $5 billion and says that certain sectors are lucrative, such as the trade in industrial rags. Clothes deemed unusable are sold to be converted into non-woven goods (insulation, cleaning materials) and shipped around the world.
``We're not talking cottage industry here, we're talking global business," Prof Lyons says. Lifeline South Coast recently announced a coup in negotiating a deal exporting bales of clothes to Fiji at $1.20 per kilo (twice the going rate), the proceeds of which go to running Lifeline's 24-hour counselling service.
Keith Greenaway claims that one billion tonnes of clothing is at sea at any one time.
In Australia, Prof Lyons says clothing is put aside for ``clients" in extreme need, such as families who have been evicted or lost everything in a natural disaster. But some charities reserve ``top line" clothing for the rack, ``knowing that the people who shop in their op shops are often the children of very well-off, middle-class families".
Prof Lyons says the profile of the average customer is not ``somebody from one of the poorest suburbs who is wanting to buy something for the kids for school. They go to Kmart. If they can't afford that, they'll go to St Vinnies and be equipped for nothing."
``The shop's got a different market. They will try to get as much as they reasonably can, because that money goes to help the very poorest of our society."
But is the new clientele driving up prices of second-hand goods and making life tougher for the traditional lower-income customers?
``It's a self-supporting service to the community and if we didn't have more than the welfare sector buying in our shops these days, prices would have to be a lot higher," Mr Greenaway says. ``Everyone thinks we get the goods for free so there's no cost. That's not the case. A lot of our people take home a wage - they work for a living. And nobody gives us $80,000 trucks to drive around in; they're paid for, and buildings are paid for. The actual profit in running our business is very small, and we don't talk about profits, we talk about surplus because the whole lot goes back into the welfare scene anyway. At the Wollongong facility the welfare office is in the same building as the store. Money goes in one door and out the other."
``Obviously prices have increased over the past 10 years, otherwise we'd be out of business," Illawarra Red Shield Industries manager Philip Cooke says. The Salvos' eight Illawarra stores have a mix of paid and volunteer staff, as well as some people who are fulfilling community service orders.
Ron McCudden argues that St Vincent's prices are still affordable.``We see a lot of sole parents, because they can dress their kids reasonably well for $4 or $5 for an outfit. One young lass came in a few weeks ago and bought shoes for two little boys. She said, `I pay 40-something dollars for these types of shoes and they kick the lights out of them in about two months. But I can come here and get two pairs for $2 each.'
``But if people come in and have a tale of woe and need welfare, we give it to them. And clothing too, or crockery or whatever. That's what we're here for."
© 2002 Illawarra Mercury
